Newtown on NRA speech: 'Completely off the mark'

3:44 PM, December 21, 2012

NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre pauses as he makes a statement during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Washington. / AP Photo/ Evan Vucci

Newtown resident Betsy Paynter watched the NRA's announcement live on television Friday. Midway through the speech by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, who called for armed guards in every school in the USA, she turned off the TV.

"Completely off the mark," said Paynter, 46, a marketing executive with two children in middle school in Newtown. "There's a need for security systems but not for someone else to have a gun in the school. It's not what you want your kindergartner to see."

Putting more guns in school will only encourage gunmen and militias to further stockpile weapons, Paynter said. "That's just encouraging more fear," she said.

The fact that the NRA announced it will be supporting an initiative to put more armed guards in school just an hour after the embattled community observed a moment of silence for the 20 children and six adults killed last week showed poor taste from the gun lobby group, Paynter said.

Even before the press conference ended, Facebook posts by Newtown residents were starting to appear criticizing the NRA's timing and announcement, she said.

"You can't get any more rude than that," she said. "It's really ugly."

Newtown resident David Stout, 49,an energy consultant, said he had hoped to hear an honest announcement from the NRA regarding background checks on all gun sales or closing other loopholes â€" not putting more armed guards in schools.

"Folks in Newtown are appalled by that suggestion," said Stout, a hunter who owns several hunting rifles. "I understand we want to protect our kids, but there are other ways to do that. We don't want to turn our schools into prisons."

Stout is a member of a grass-roots groups formed after the Dec. 14 shooting called Newtown United, which supports the victims' families and is advocating tighter gun rules. He said it was "ridiculous" for the NRA to blame the media and video games for such mass shootings and not mention the easy accessibility to assault rifles and ammunition.

"It's ridiculous we can't all come together and say, 'Ok, what makes sense?'" Stout said. "Something has to change."